Bait-holder.



W. J. KEARNEY.

BAIT HOLDER.

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993,833, Pa tented May 30,1911.

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BAIT-HOLDER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed September 4, 1909.

Patented May 30, 1911.

Serial No. 516,184.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM JAMES KEARNEY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Louisville, in the county of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, have invented a new and useful Bait-Holder, of which the following is a specification.

It is the object of the present invention to provide an improved device for supporting and holding bait, and the invention relates more particularly to a device constructed and arranged to support a mass of rat paste or the like; although the device may be employed in certain classes of traps, if desired.

It is customary, in employing rat paste, to place a lump of it about the different rooms of a house, but such method of use is by no means desirable, in that small children are liable, in crawling about the floors, to pick up and eat the particles of paste.

The present invention therefore aims to provide a support for a mass of rat paste which will firmly support the paste in such manner that it will not be liable to become scattered about, and will not be liable to be picked up and eaten by small children.

Broadly stated, the present invention consists in providing, for the purpose above specified, a strip of material, such as sheet metal, having means provided or formed thereon for anchoring a mass of paste or other similar material, the strip being further arranged to be tacked up upon the wash-board of a room.

In the accompanying drawings :Figure entirety, and as it will be placed upon the market, that is, with a mass of paste anchored thereon. Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but illustrating the paste in dotted lines.

In the drawings the device embodying the present invention is illustrated as embodied in a strip 5, preferably of sheet metal, such material being preferably employed, in that it does not hold such odors as would tend to intimidate the rodents which are to be poisoned. This strip is preferably oblong in outline and, at one end, is formed with an opening 6, through which may be driven a tack or nail for the purpose of securing the strip, or suspending the same upon the washboard of a room.

As illustrated in the drawings, and more particularly in Fig. 2 thereof, the strip 5, at

its end opposite the end in which the open-- ing 6 is formed, has stamped up therefrom aplurality of tongues, each havlng a shank 7 and a substantially triangular head 8. These tongues are preferably three in number; although they may be two in number, or of a greater number than three, if found expedient, and they are preferably arranged as shown in the drawings, that is, at the corners of an imaginary triangle, one of the tongues, indicated more particularly by the reference character 7, being located nearer the lower end edge of the strip 5 than are the other two tongues. All of the tongues 7 are so struck up from the plate as to extend outwardly at an angle from the front face thereof, this angle being at about 45 degrees.

In employing the device, the rat paste to be supported thereby is applied upon the strip in the mass, and is indicated in Fig. 1 of the drawings by reference numeral 9. This mass of paste, when hardened, which it will do if properly compounded, will firmly embed the tongues 7, and will also fill the openings resulting from the stamping up of these tongues from the strip. As above stated, each of the tongues 7 is formed with a substantially triangular head 8, and the base of the triangle formed by this head is that portion of the head from which the shank of the tongue projects or extends, and it will be readily understood that by reason of this location of the shank with respect to the head, shoulders, indicated by the numeral 10, will be afforded, and that these shoul ders will act to securely anchor the cake or mass of paste 9 upon the strip. It will further be understood that where the device is hung up upon a wash-board or similar support, the mass of paste being located at the lower end of the suspended strip, the said mass or cake cannot be pulled from the strip by an animal gnawing at it, owing to the fact that the tongue 7 projects upwardly at an angle, or in other words, at an angle toward the upper end of the strip.

The fact will be readily appreciated, from the foregoing description of the invention, that, by employing this device for supporting a mass or cake of rat paste, the paste will not be in such condition as will render it likely that small children will pick it up and eat it; and it will further not become scattered over the floor of the room in which it is placed. 7

What is claimed is As a new article of manufacture, a device for destroying rodents comprising a strip of sheet metal having a plurality of tongues struck up therefrom at one end, the tongues being shouldered and pointed and having their pointed ends presented toward a common center, the said tongues extending at an acute angle to the plane of the base of the strip from Which they project, and a hardened mass of poisonous material having the tongues embedded therein and held by 1 said tongues upon one face of the strip at the said ends thereof, the said strip being 1 formed at its other end With an opening for 15 WILLIAM JAMES KEARNEY.

Witnesses:

ALBERT HENRY CLARK, ADA KAVANAUGH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington D. C. 

